Better Than Revenge
by do i need a pen name
Summary: Marlene does not take kindly to Sirius' decision to date a Quidditch 'star'. And so she does the one thing that any sane person would do: she vows revenge. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer-I only own the McKinnon siblings (Malcolm, Milo, Marcas, Merric, and Max), together with An-Jelly-Ca.**

**Better than Revenge**

Really, if anyone was to be blamed, it was all Milo's fault.

Milo and his ruggedly handsome, Quidditch player good looks. And his oh-so-charming personality which—for the record—Marlene, as his younger sister, considered to be only a much-talked-about rumor as she hadn't ever seen it firsthand. And did he really have to be so friendly and inviting? Marlene firmly believed that if Milo wasn't such a nice person all of this could have been avoided.

But Milo was all of those things. And, as a result, Marlene was never going to forgive her brother for being the reason a certain someone had been around to steal her best friend away from her.

_**Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did**_

It was the summer of 1977. August to be precise, with less than a month left before Marlene was due to begin her seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Milo was the captain of the Irish International Quidditch team. The final match of the Quidditch World Cup wouldn't be played until the following August, but team practices had already started, with the first round of the Cup beginning in October.

Back in June, shortly after the school year had ended, Sirius, Marlene's best friend in the entire world, had run away from home. Personally, Marlene believed that he was better off for it. Not only was he finally escaping from his insane family, but he was also enabling himself to spend more time with people who actually cared about him. Namely, Marlene…plus their other friend James…and his parents…and Marlene's entire family pretty much, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Sirius was finally free, and he couldn't have been happier about it.

Sirius' happiness was infectious. Whenever he and James dropped by, usually to play Quidditch on the full-size pitch handily located on the McKinnon estate, Marlene couldn't help but be happy as well. It was quite possibly the best summer of her life; playing Quidditch and spending time with her friends (and, she might one day begrudgingly admit that spending some time with her younger brothers was rather nice, too).

Nothing could possibly bring her down.

And then Milo had stopped by for a visit. Sweet, wonderful, handsome, Quidditch star Milo, who of course just _had_ to bring _her_ with, because she just _had_ to meet the wonderful family Milo couldn't stop going on about. In Marlene's opinion, thinking about it now, bringing Joscelind home with him was quite possibly the worst thing Milo had ever done in his entire life.

It was so painfully obvious to Marlene what Joscelind was really doing in her home that August afternoon. And it had made Marlene more than a tad smug to know that Joscelind's plan was going to fail utterly. Milo didn't date teammates, or do anything else with them that Joscelind most likely had in mind.

But then they had gone out into the backyard, following Marlene, of all people, who had gone in to get the water pitcher refilled and thus been the first to greet Milo and Joscelind.

James, Marlene, and her youngest brother, Max, had been in an epic Quidditch battle against Sirius and Marlene's other two younger brothers, Marcas and Merric. They had decided to take a break and were all still lounging around on the ground next to their brooms when Marlene, who had drawn the short straw, came back with the water. Marcas, Merric, and Max had all jumped to their feet upon spotting Milo and had promptly tackled him to the ground by way of greeting one of their often-absent older brothers.

James and Sirius had also made to greet him, as they were quite familiar with the entire McKinnon family, as evidenced by their ease with spending pretty much all of their free time at the McKinnon estate. James had somehow been pulled into the mass of limbs struggling on the ground and Sirius had been about to dive headfirst into the fray, when he had spotted the blonde girl who had come to a halt a few steps behind Milo.

Marlene had long known that Sirius had a weakness for girls. It was no secret that he had dated at least half of the female population at Hogwarts. And, no matter what anyone said, Marlene didn't really have a problem with it. Yes, at times it tried her patience how callous Sirius seemed to be when it came to dating and then breaking up with his plethora of girlfriends. But no matter what anyone _cough__cough_ might say or think, Marlene did not harbor a deep and everlasting love for her best friend. That would be the most ridiculous thing in the entire world. It was beyond absurd. It simply just wasn't true.

And then Sirius caught Joscelind's eye.

"Hey," He had said confidently, his lips pulling into a cocky grin.

"Hi," She had replied with a coy smile of her own.

And it was in that moment that Marlene knew Joscelind's original plan didn't need to fail; the blonde had abandoned it the moment she saw Marlene's best friend.

_**The story begins when it was hot and it was summer and**_

_**I had it all, I had him right there where I wanted him**_

_**She came along, got him alone, and let's hear the applause**_

_**She took him faster than you could say sabotage**_

Just watching the two of them smile at each other like that caused Marlene's world to crash around her.

And then suddenly they weren't looking at each other anymore, and James and her brothers were no longer wrestling with each other on the ground. Rather, everyone was looking right at her; at Marlene. That was when Marlene realized she had dropped the glass pitcher and it had shattered upon crashing to the hard ground.

"You alright, 'Lene?" Milo asked with some concern when no one else spoke up after a moment.

"I…" Marlene looked from the crowd of people in front of her to her hands to the ground and then back to the assembled group again. It registered vaguely in the back of her mind that her hands were shaking. "I have to go."

And without another word, Marlene rushed past her brothers, friends, and Joscelind into the house. Everyone, save for Joscelind, shot the girl concerned looks, but Marlene didn't see them through her blurred vision. By the time she got to her room she realized that she had tears running down her cheeks.

Marlene couldn't understand what was happening. Obviously, with just one look, Sirius already fancied Joscelind, which was nothing new. He was quite possibly the most flirtatious person in the world, which Marlene had known for ages. So she couldn't understand why she had reacted this way. There had been plenty of times before when she had had to suffer through Sirius hitting on other girls while she was right there. They had never caused her to burst into tears. In fact, it wasn't very often that Marlene ever cried…she couldn't even remember the last time it had happened…

Clearly there was just something about Joscelind, but Marlene couldn't figure it out as she sank to the floor and leaned back against her closed bedroom door, effectively blocking anyone from opening it.

What had just happened out there? Marlene couldn't honestly say that she had an answer…but there must have been a reason she had taken Sirius' latest flavor of the week so hard.

Dorcas, Marlene's second best friend in the entire world, thought that Marlene was crazy for putting up with Sirius' womanizing ways, but Marlene always shrugged the concern off. If nothing else, it amused her to watch other girls falling under Sirius' charm, because they were crazy if they thought any of it would last. Sirius had a new girlfriend every other week, practically, and Marlene couldn't see that ever changing.

So why did Marlene feel as if her world was ending because Sirius had smiled at Joscelind?

What if…what if everyone had been right?

Marlene had known Sirius since they were both six years old; longer than he had known he even James. They had been best friends by the time they started at Hogwarts together when they were eleven, and they had remained best friends for the next six years. Marlene and Sirius were pretty much inseparable, and Merlin help the person who got in between the pair of them and their caffeine.

Marlene couldn't really imagine a life without Sirius as her best friend; he was always there for her. But now that she was taking the time to think about it (thanks to _Joscelind_ and her intrusion), Marlene realized that maybe everyone might have been right, way back in third year, when they had first said that she and Sirius were destined for each other.

And as this realization came about, an even greater realization hit Marlene: these feelings…the idea that she liked Sirius as more than just her best friend…they had been creeping up on her for some time now. But without Joscelind, she never would have seen it.

No, if it wasn't for Joscelind—whom Marlene was more than sure Sirius was already chatting up at this very moment never mind the obvious distress his supposed best friend in the entire world was clearly in—Marlene was sure that it would have taken her ages longer to realize that she had long ago fallen for Sirius.

As Marlene sat there on the floor, with her back pressed against her closed bedroom door, the tears continued to slide down her face. Why? Why did she have to realize that she was in love with her best friend now? Now, of all times, with that wretched, pathetic excuse for a Quidditch player here to steal him away from Marlene before…well, before she could even tell him of this revelation about her changed feelings for him.

Marlene and Sirius might not have been romantically involved in any sense of the word before this. And Marlene might not have realized until _quite_ recently that she was in love with her best friend. And Sirius might not know what the effect of that one glance and that brief exchange of words had had on his friendship with Marlene. And Sirius might not know that his best friend in the entire world was in love with him. But there were two things that Marlene was entirely sure of.

Marlene was without a doubt one hundred percent in love with her best friend.

And she was going to do whatever it took to get him away from Joscelind and make sure that he knew just how Marlene really felt about him.

_**I never saw it coming, wouldn't have suspected it**_

_**I underestimated just who I was dealing with**_

_**She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum**_

_**She underestimated just who she was stealing from**_


	2. Chapter 2

Joscelind Wadcock was a chaser on the Irish International team. Marlene, however, was of the opinion that the only reason the girl had gotten the spot was because of her famous mother, whom she was named after. Growing up in a family of Quidditch-obsessed boys, Marlene had heard Joscelind's name mentioned more than once over the years, and never for her (non-existent) Quidditch talent. As Marlene saw it, Joscelind was the perfect representation of the typical Beauxbatons student: totally and completely full of herself.

And after finally (unfortunately) meeting Joscelind, Marlene was willing to bet that the older girl had used more than her name to get her onto the Irish International team as well, if the way she had been flirting with Milo (to no avail) was anything to go off of.

Of course, now that Marlene really took the time to think about it, how in Merlin's name was Joscelind even on the _Irish_ International team. Joscelind Wadcock certainly wasn't an Irish name, and she didn't _look_ Irish. Being just about as Irish as it was possible to be, Marlene was quite sure of herself in those matters.

And what about where she had gone to school? Why choose to go to France and thus Beauxbatons if she really was Irish, as she obviously claimed to be due to her position on Ireland's Quidditch team.

Overall Marlene simply just didn't trust the older, blonde chaser. Nor did she like the effect the girl had on _Marlene's_ best friend.

After that first initial meeting, Sirius had shown up at the McKinnon estate like clockwork every day, sometimes even without James. Under normal circumstances, Marlene would have been overjoyed about this. What better opportunity would she ever have to explain her true feelings to Sirius, and not in the presence of the bespectacled boy who was normally his other half? There would _never_ be one. But Marlene would not get that chance.

It might seem like Sirius was always around, but that was probably because Marlene was known for sleeping through the morning. Marlene and morning did not mix, especially in the summer. But the Irish International Quidditch team practiced every single morning and had almost every single afternoon and/or evening off.

Thus, while Sirius seemed to be at the McKinnon's every day, Joscelind really was. Sometimes Milo was there, sometimes he wasn't. Occasionally the rest of the team was there, too. But one thing was certain: If Joscelind was there, then Sirius was there, too. Likewise, if Sirius was there, then Joscelind was there, too.

Marlene really hated Joscelind Wadcock.

Of course, there was the obvious reason that the older _ahem_ girl was dating her best friend, whom Marlene had only recently discovered that she quite possibly liked as much more than a friend. But there was also the fact that Joscelind just seemed to have the strangest effect on Sirius. He was completely absorbed in her, even when she wasn't around, which was a rare occurrence these days. Marlene would almost call it infatuation. After all, she had observed enough of that with how James had carried on after Evans over the years.

Speaking of Evans…Marlene couldn't remember James mentioning her once the entire summer. How bizarre.

Clearly something was going on there, but Marlene really couldn't worry about that right now. She had bigger things to worry over; namely, how in Merlin's name was she supposed to get Sirius away from that…_thing_?

_**She's not a saint, and she's not what you think**_

_**She's an actress, whoa**_

_**But she's better known for the things that she does on the mattress**_

_**Whoa**_

_**Soon she's gonna find stealing other peoples' toys on the playground won't make you many friends**_

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**There is nothing I do better than revenge**_

"Hey, 'Lene," Max said, poking his head through Marlene's doorway.

"Yeah?" She replied, breaking her gaze away from her ceiling, which she had been looking at with great intensity, and turning her attention to her brother. "What's up?"

"Mum wants you to know that she adores Sirius, but if she hears another word about how fabulous 'Jos' is, then she's going to either tear her hair out or cut all of Sirius' hair off because at this point she would much rather hear him moaning about the unfortunate loss of all of his beloved hair," Max got out all in one breath.

"What am I supposed to do about it?" Marlene demanded, returning to scrutinizing her ceiling.

"Come downstairs and entertain him while the team is still practicing so that she can go find the firewhiskey that Grandpa gave her last Christmas," Max replied promptly.

Marlene looked at her youngest brother dubiously. "Mum really said that to you?"

"Well…no," Max admitted. "She said she was going to go work in the garden, and you know how the gnomes frustrate her."

Marlene sighed. "Do I really have to go see him?"

Max merely grinned at his sister cheekily.

"You used to love it when Sirius came over," Max stated. "Did you and your _boyfriend_ break up, 'Leney?"

And with a small giggle, he spun on his heel and ran off down the hall. In a flash, Marlene was on her feet, chasing after him.

"Come back here, you little…" Marlene hollered.

Due to the fact that Marlene was several years older and therefore still taller than the youngest McKinnon, she caught up to him in the entrance hall of the manor, and just managed to tackle the boy to the ground.

"Take it back, Maxwell," Marlene commanded.

"No way," Max replied, trying and failing to get his sister off of him.

"You asked for it, then," Marlene informed him, before beginning her attack.

Now, the McKinnon's were a large family, with six children. As such, those children were very close to each other, and therefore knew one another's secrets. All of them; no matter how well-hidden they might be. For example, Max's reference to Sirius being Marlene's boyfriend, while not technically a solid fact, was something her younger siblings had all seen as a very good possibility from an early age. More relevant at the moment, though, was the not-so-very well-kept secret that Maxwell McKinnon was quite possibly the most ticklish person on the entire planet. But then again, he'd had it coming for years.

"Do you surrender yet?" Marlene demanded, as Max gasped for breath in between uncontrollable spurts of laughter.

"Never," He managed to get out as his face slowly became redder due to his current lack of oxygen.

"Your loss," Marlene said with a shrug.

Unbeknownst to either of the two McKinnon's in question, whilst Marlene bestowed the traditional punishment upon Max, the Irish International team's practice had come to an end, and Cathleen McKinnon was thus no longer in need of rescue from her daughter's best friend. This, unfortunately, was a fact that Marlene and Max were about to discover.

"Would it be possible for you to _not_ take up the entire hallway?" A snide voice questioned. "Some of us have places to be."

Marlene immediately ceased her attack on her brother, though she was still on top of him, and looked up to see Joscelind standing there, looking entirely too perfect for just having gotten out of practice. Not that Marlene would ever admit that. Either way, though, the image was ruined by the ugly scowl on the blonde's face as she stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at the two redheads before her.

"Well?" Joscelind demanded, tapping her foot against the marble floor impatiently.

Marlene merely glowered at her.

"It's our house," Max stated. "So we'll do as we please."

"Hmph," Came Joscelind's response. "And here I was believing all the good things Milo always had to say about you lot. Clearly he was wrong."

"I'll say," Marlene replied. "What with all the praise he gave you; a born pathological liar, that one."

"I much prefer your other siblings," Joscelind informed the pair. "They're much more…welcoming."

"You stay away from them," Marlene said fiercely. Nothing more could be said, however, because the sound of approaching footsteps reached their ears. A brief moment later, Sirius appeared in the hallway behind Joscelind.

"Hey, Jos," he said, slipping an arm around her waist smoothly. Immediately, her hostile expression was replaced with one of innocence. He then caught sight of Max and Marlene.

"What are you doing, Mars?" He asked her slowly.

"We're just hanging out," Max said immediately, "Some of us with a more impaired flow of oxygen than others."

"Just ignore them," Joscelind commanded, tugging on Sirius' arm. "C'mon, Siri, you said we were actually going to go somewhere _fun_ today."

Marlene frowned as the pair walked away. Slowly, she stood up, and pulled Max up alongside her.

"The two of them together is just messed up," Max commented. "She's pure evil." He paused but continued on cautiously when his sister made no move to speak, and continued to stare unseeingly in the direction Sirius and Joscelind had disappeared in. "Now, don't attack me again, 'Lene, but I really do think you and Sirius are perfect for each other," the recently turned 13 year-old said with complete seriousness. "_Jos_ is just a wacko."

Marlene nodded listlessly.

Over the next few weeks, Sirius and Joscelind continued to spend all of their free time in each other's company. Not once did Marlene get even a second of alone time with Sirius, while her brief encounters with Joscelind got even nastier. James stopped coming around altogether. He said that he had to put up with Sirius simply talking about his girlfriend so much already that he might do something he'd later regret if he spent any more time with the two of them together. He invited Marlene over, offering her some relief from all of the insanity, as any good friend would, but Marlene couldn't bring herself to accept. Accepting James' invitation would be accepting defeat where Joscelind was concerned. And Marlene would _not_ be defeated.

Except…was it even worth it anymore?

She knew beyond a doubt that was she felt about Sirius was real, but…were they even _friends_ anymore? Friends actually spent time with each other, and Merlin only knew how much time Marlene and Sirius _hadn't_ spent with each other in the past few weeks.

So where would that leave Marlene once they went back to Hogwarts?

If she and Sirius werent' really friends anymore, would she actually have to make an attempt to be more than passably civil with her dorm-mates?

Of course…they _were_ girls, Marlene reasoned to herself, and they would probably have a better idea of how to handle this situation than she did. In any case, befriending Eva—no, it should be _Lily_ if she was going to attempt friendship with them. But anyway, actually being friends with Lily was a safe bet to make sure that James didn't, for any reason whatsoever, follow his best friend's example and drop Marlene.

Accordingly, Marlene's trip back to Hogwarts for her seventh year was not the happy occasion it was meant to be. She really couldn't bear to hear another word about Joscelind and had instead followed through with her idea and sought out the other 7th year Gryffindor girls.

Dorcas Meadowes, while undeniably actually one of Marlene's closest friends, was also on good terms with her other dorm-mates and oftentimes preferred spending time with them rather than the often-rambunctious Marauders. Although, it had to be admitted, Marlene was convinced there was something going on between the blonde and Remus.

Then there were Alice Prewett, Lily Evans, and Mary MacDonald. Marlene _was_ civil with all three, but they had never exactly been _friends_ with each other. Now was as good a time as any to start, though…

Surprisingly, they accepted her appearance in their compartment with barely a word. Marlene suspected Dorcas had something to do with this, for which she was grateful. There was, however, a bigger reaction when James slipped into the compartment about halfway through the afternoon.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" Mary demanded.

"I came to talk to Marlene," He replied, before turning his attention to the aforementioned redhead. "Ev—Lily told me you were in here. Moony and I were concerned when you never showed up, earlier."

"Just you two?" Marlene couldn't help but ask, hating how bitter she sounded about it.

"Er…yes," James replied, looking uncomfortable. "Pete's been sleeping most of the trip and Sirius…well, he's been catching Moony up on his new girlfriend. Honestly, I don't think Sirius even noticed that I left the compartment, he's so busy talking about Joscelind." He paused here, looking uncertain. "Do you…Do you think that maybe I could stay here for a bit? I honestly can't take another second of Sirius talking about _her_."

Surprisingly, it was Lily who answered. "Sure, Po-James. We need to work on that patrol schedule anyway."

James smiled in relief, and Marlene couldn't help but crack the smallest possible smile as well. It was nice being around James again, even if he was acting insanely calm considering he was in the same compartment as Lily Evans. All the same, Marlene could clearly tell that James was not going to abandon her anytime soon like Sirius had.

James was by no means a replacement for Marlene's oldest friend. Rather, he was the closest connection he could find to what she was now considering to be her 'old' life, a life she missed terribly. Indeed, Marlene's newfound distance from Sirius caused her to realize how very much she needed him back.

She was pondering this very thing over lunch on the first Saturday of the new term. There had to be some way to get Sirius to see sense again, Marlene reasoned to herself, gazing out across the Great Hall. Just then, a dark-haired figure rose from the Slytherin table, school bag slung over his shoulder.

Marlene's eyes widened in realization as the boy made his way out of the Great Hall. She had the perfect way to get Sirius away from Joscelind…

_**She looks at life like it's a party and she's on the list**_

_**She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it**_

_**I think her ever-present frown is a little troubling**_

_**She thinks I'm psycho cause I like to rhyme her name with things**_

_**But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know**_

_**Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go**_

_**They didn't teach you that in prep school so it's up to me**_

_**That no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity**_


	3. Chapter 3

Marlene quickly pushed her plate away and got up from the table without a word of explanation to Dorcas, Mary, Alice, and Lily.

Knowing there was only one place the Slytherin could be headed on a Saturday this early in the term, Marlene quickly made her way up to the fourth floor and the library. Upon entering the book-filled room (which, admittedly, she _should_ probably be just a tad more familiar with after 6 years) Marlene began prowling the shelves, before her eyes alighted on just the person she was looking for.

"Reg…_psst!_ Regulus!" Marlene hissed at the dark-haired boy from behind a bookshelf.

The Slytherin, who had been studiously working on an essay at a nearby table, gave a startled jump and looked around frantically before he finally caught a glimpse of Marlene, causing his expression to settle into a severe frown.

"What do _you_ want?" He asked, rather rudely, not even looking at her as he spoke, instead turning his attention back to his essay.

"I need your help," Marlene informed him, checking the general vicinity around them one more time. Finding it quite deserted, she stepped out into the open and settled herself into the chair across from Regulus.

This announcement caused Regulus to look up in surprise, though his snide Slytherin mask quickly fell back into place.

"With what?" He asked, one eyebrow raised.

"It's about your brother," Marlene began slowly, still a bit uneasy about her whole plan, as she had quite literally just thought it all up on the spot.

"What?" Regulus' expression slipped into one of worry for his brother, whom he hadn't actually spoken to in months, not since the elder Black had run away from home. "Is something wrong with Sirius?"

"It's…well, kind of, I suppose," Marlene admitted. "Have you heard he's dating Joscelind Wadcock?"

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Mum nearly blew the roof off the house when she read it in the Prophet a few weeks ago. But what about it?" He demanded, becoming the cold Slytherin once more. "Why should I care about my _dear_ brother's personal life? He's made it quite clear he doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

Marlene sighed at this. "Reg, I know him leaving really hurt you, but I don't even want to think about what he might have resorted to if he had stayed. He was going insane in that house, and you know him leaving was for the best."

"I'm not hurt," Regulus said, stiffening at what he perceived to be an accusation of weakness. "And Mother, Father, and I _are_ better off without him."

"Well you might be, but I'm certainly not," Marlene stated.

Regulus just gave her a confused look.

"Your brother has abandoned me for that blonde bimbo," Marlene informed the younger boy. "I swear she's brainwashed him or something; even while we're here at school and she's nowhere to be seen he's…" She trailed off before her gaze refocused on Regulus. "Reg, I need your help. I'm going to get revenge on Sirius and that…_person_."

Regulus gave her a calculating look. "What kind of revenge?"

"Now, hear me out on this one, Reg, please," She began slowly. Marlene took a deep breath, steeling herself to say something that she just knew he wasn't going to like. "I want you to pretend to be my boyfriend."

"What?" Regulus protested, only remembering that they were in the library and keeping his voice down at the last second, thus avoiding drawing any sort of attention to their otherwise deserted little corner. "I'm not going to do that! You're a Gryffindor! And practically a blood-traitor. My mum will kill me!"

"Is that really all you think of me, Regulus?" Marlene questioned, her expression stony. "You used to be Marcas' best friend; don't tell me that's why the two of you refuse to be in the same room as each other anymore. You can't be Marcas' friend because he just isn't good enough for you anymore."

"Isn't it?" Regulus challenged, before his shoulders slumped as he gave a deep sigh. "I guess I don't think that. Not really, anyway. It's hard to figure out what's going on in my head, some of the time, what thoughts and ideas are mine and which ones are Mother's. But…" He hesitated, "Either way, I'm still not entirely sure I like this idea."

"Why not?" Marlene pressed him.

"Well…because you and Sirius…the two of you always seemed so perfect for each other," Regulus admitted, flinching preemptively, recalling Marlene's previous reactions to people's assumptions that she and Sirius were an item. "I mean, I know you were never together or anything, but, no matter how angry I am with my brother, I don't know if I could hurt him like this. Even if it is all pretend."

"Yeah…well," Marlene gave a large sigh as if what she was about to say was going to pain her greatly. "After Sirius and the bimbo got together, I got to thinking, and…well, I realized all of you people might have been right for all these years."

"So if you really do have feelings for my brother," Regulus said, looking confused, "Why would you want to pretend to be dating me? What's that going to achieve?"

"_Reg_," Marlene practically moaned, sounding as if she was on the verge of tears. "Sirius abandoned me. He completely and utterly left me, no matter what we've always said about being friends forever. I need to get him back from her before I lose him forever. I really think that seeing the two of us together will help Sirius come to his senses; everyone couldn't have believed we'd end up together for all of these years if our so-called apparent feelings for each other weren't mutual."

Marlene gave Regulus a pleading look. "Please, Reg? I know that no matter how angry you are with Sirius you don't really want to hurt him, but I _need_ him back."

Regulus frowned again, but Marlene could see that he was wavering. "Mother won't take too kindly to hearing that I'm dating you. You know better than I do that she's never been…fond of you."

"You don't have to tell her," Marlene said quickly.

"I'd like to see us do something big enough to get Sirius' attention and yet keep it hidden from the rest of the school," Regulus told her. "I might not have to tell her directly, but Mother will find out somehow."

"Then tell her," Marlene said, straightening out of her slump as a sudden thought popped into her head. "Tell her that Sirius and I had a bit of a falling out, and you're dating me to get Sirius angry." She smiled sadly here, "I'm sure your mum will be pleased with anything that's supposed to hurt Sirius."

Regulus sighed again. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Fine, I'll do it. But," He held up one finger before Marlene could begin to thank him. "As soon as the two of you get everything sorted out you had better tell him that none of it was real."

"I will, Regulus," Marlene said, standing up and rushing to the other side of the table to throw her arms around Regulus in a quick hug. "Thanks so much, Reg, you're the best," she informed him as she pulled back. She turned and began making her way out of the library.

"Marlene?" Regulus only hesitated for a fraction of a second before calling out to the girl.

"Yes?" Marlene turned around, a questioning look on her face.

"Tell Marcas I say 'hi' will you?" He requested a bit stiffly. "I…I feel bad about how things turned out between us."

"I will," Marlene said with a nod, her lips quirking up into a sad smile. "See you later, Reg."

_**She's not a saint, and she's not what you think**_

_**She's an actress, whoa**_

_**But she's better known for the things that she does on the mattress**_

_**Whoa**_

_**Soon she's gonna find stealing other peoples' toys on the playground won't make you many friends**_

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**There is nothing I do better than revenge**_


	4. Chapter 4

"This was a bad idea," Regulus stated, pacing nervously off to the side of the Entrance Hall.

Marlene, who had been peaking around the doorway into the Great Hall, turned back to glance at him briefly, a kind expression upon her face.

"Everything will be fine," Marlene informed him, in an attempt at comfort. It didn't do much for Regulus, though.

"Sirius is going to hate me forever!" Regulus insisted.

At this, Marlene finally focused her full attention on the Slytherin.

"Reg," Marlene began, grabbing the younger boy's hand in her much smaller one, "Sirius is pretty positive that _you_ hate _him _because _he_ was the one who left _you_. But we're not going to worry about that, alright? Everything _will_ work out, in the end. You'll see."

Regulus still didn't look entirely convinced, but he nodded his agreement anyway.

"I've found them," Marlene said now, jerking her head in the direction of the Great Hall, behind her. "Are you ready?"

"Do I really have a choice?" Regulus questioned.

"Not this far in the game," Marlene informed him. "Unless you'd rather ditch school to find good ol' Jos and seduce her and have it written up in _Witch Weekly_ or something, thus finding as legitimate of a source as possible to expose Sirius to her less than faithful ways and disillusion him to what he probably views as her magnificence. However, with that plan, I doubt Sirius would spare a thought of forgiving you. Ever."

"We'll stick with the original plan, then," Regulus said promptly.

"That's what I thought," Marlene intoned with a slight nod of her head and holding her hand out for Regulus to take. "Now, let do this thing."

Looking incredibly nervous and as if he would much rather be doing just about anything else right now, Regulus grasped her much smaller hand in his own.

"And do try to look as if this isn't paining you greatly," Marlene advised him, catching sight of his expression out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, yes, I know I'm infatuated with you," Regulus reassured her. "Don't worry, I did read the memo on all of that—'_puppy love_' did you call it? Also, if I fail the Charms quiz I should have been studying for rather than reading that note, I blame you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just call my lawyer," Marlene said with a distracted wave of her hand. Regulus merely looked at her cluelessly. "And moving on," She continued rapaidly, "We'll be going in to lunch now."

It was just after twelve o'clock and the Great Hall was just about overflowing with students, ravenous after a long morning of lessons. As such, most of them were paying more attention to the spread of delicious food before them than the two people who had just entered the Hall. But as the Gryffindor/Slytherin duo made their way to the other side of the room where Marlene's friends were seated, a hush seemed to sweep across the room, not that the seventh year Gryffindors took immediate notice of it.

"What are lot talking about?" Marlene asked, sliding into the seat across from Dorcas, releasing Regulus' hand in the process as he took the seat next to her, looking a bit stiff.

Dorcas broke away from her conversation with Lily and Remus. "That quiz McGonagall told us about earlier."

Marlene frowned slightly. One, because she had just noticed that Sirius wasn't seated with the rest of their friends. And two, because she couldn't recall the Deputy Headmistress saying a single word about any type of quiz in this morning's class.

"We're studying for it later, if you'd like to join us," Remus offered.

Seizing the opportunity (although Sirius was apparently M.I.A. at the moment), Marlene immediately turned to Regulus with an innoccent expression upon her face.

"You don't mind if I cancel our plans for this afternoon, do you, Reg?" Marlene asked sweetly. And at this, it seemed as if Marlene's yearmates had finally noticed the presence of the Slytherin sixth year at their table.

"Er…um…no, not at all, I suppose," Regulus said less than succinctly.

"Excellent," Marlene said, ignoring her friends' stares and the whispers resounding throughout the Hall.

"Uh…Marlene?" James questioned his star beater, looking quite confused and sounding slightly as if he thought someone was trying to pull something on him. "What's Regulus Black doing here?"

"And _why_ are you clearing your schedule through him?" Dorcas had long been questioning her best friend's sanity, and here was her proof that the redhead had finally cracked…well, alright, she'd concluded that long ago, but further evidence was always helpful.

"Well, you see, it's like this—" Marlene began, but did not get the chance to continue because, at that precise moment, Sirius finally decided to show up.

"Sorry I'm late, all," Sirius announced, swinging a leg over the bench and taking his customary seat next to James, placing the bespectacled boy in between himself and Marlene. "I just had to send a letter to Jos."

At the mere mention of his girlfriend's name, everyone (minus Sirius, who had yet to notice his younger brother) turned their attention back to Marlene, as none of them had any desire whatsoever to hear one more word uttered about how utterly fantastic the blonde Quidditch player was.

"You were saying…" Dorcas prompted her friend.

A wide grin spread across Marlene's face and, as her official best girl friend, Dorcas couldn't help but notice that it looked a bit _too_ happy.

"Regulus is my boyfriend," Marlene said cheerfully, causing an immediate reaction from her friends.

Dorcas had a look of complete and utter doubt on her face; she didn't believe a word of it. Lily, seated in between Dorcas and Remus, and Mary and Alice, seated on Dorcas' other side, merely wore confused expressions at the sudden announcement; Marlene hadn't ever mentioned anything about dating anyone before. Just a glance at James' face showed that he was already choosing the exact wording of the Unbreakable Vow he was going to force Marlene to make, so as to prevent her from sharing any of the Gryffindor Quidditch team's secrets with the Slytherin seeker. Remus, meanwhile, had a calculating look on his face; after Sirius' recent behavior he didn't find it doubtful that Marlene would turn to his younger brother for comfort, though he wasn't sure whether or not he actually believed it yet. Peter hadn't even noticed, as he was currently fully immersed in the large pile of food on his plate. And then there was Sirius.

As soon as the words had left Marlene's mouth, Sirius spit out the gulp of pumpkin juice he had just taken, effectively bringing an end to Peter's obliviousness as he happened to be the unfortunate soul seated across from the dark-haired boy.

"And we were planning on spending our afternoon break together," Marlene continued on without the slightest indication that she had noticed her friends' (and particularly Sirius') reactions. "But I suppose there's plenty of time for that later, isn't there, Reg?"

Looking only slightly like a deer caught in the headlights, Regulus swiftly gave an affirmative nod.

"Are you feeling alright, Marly?" Dorcas questioned hesitantly.

"'Course I am," Marlene said easily, entwining her fingers with Regulus' once more. "I've never been happier."

"Mars," Sirius leaned around James so as to look Marlene directly in the face, the expression on his face saying that he couldn't quite believe what he had just heard. "Did you just say that you and Regulus are…dating?"

"Yeah…" Marlene said, doing her best to look annoyed that she had to repeat herself. "Like I said before: he's my boyfriend."

It was at this point that Sirius appeared to stop breathing, as his face quickly became more and more red with a slightly purple hue to it. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Marlene beat him to it.

"You know what, Reg?" Marlene turned back to Regulus, effectively ignoring the older Black. "Forget making up for the lost time later, why don't we get out of here now? I'm sure we can find a few much more entertaining activities to do rather than sit here…"

And without another word, Marlene was out of her seat once more, pulling Regulus after her and leaving behind one fuming and seven highly confused Gryffindors.

_**I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey**_

_**You might have him but haven't you heard**_

_**I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey**_

_**You might have him but I always get the last word**_

_**Whoa**_


	5. Chapter 5

After that day in the Great Hall, Sirius effectively ceased speaking to Marlene. But although he never communicated with her directly, he made it quite clear how much he disapproved of her relationship choices. Attempting to be the bigger person, Marlene made no verbal reply—to Sirius or any of their friends, who were all quite uncomfortable with being caught in the middle of everything. Rather, she threw herself into her "relationship" with Regulus, and therefore her schoolwork as the younger Black spent a majority of his time in the library. Marlene McKinnon had never gotten such high grades before in her life.

Things finally came to a head one day during Quidditch practice, though.

Gryffindor Quidditch Captain James Potter was quite the fan of early morning practices, nevermind the extreme cold and the frost on the ground. The weather at 6 a.m. on this particular October morning was no different.

Marlene forced herself to exit the warmth of her nice, soft bed at the blasphemously early hour, her only consolation being that Sirius would also not be getting any coffee this morning either, as Remus had quite effectively hidden the substance he had long ago labelled as contraband. The redhead had found that, while she was still _quite_ in love with her former best friend, lately she couldn't help but gain a sense of satisfaction with anything that disrupted what she viewed as Sirius' otherwise perfect life. Clearly it was all his fault, however, because _he_ was _obviously_ being the bigger idiot of the two of them, and the only thing allowing this…disagreement to drag on, not that Marlene was really doing much to end it herself.

In short, Marlene's motivation to get up that morning and go to practice weren't entirely for all the right reasons.

Old habits die hard, though, and Marlene was the last member of the team to drag themselves down to the Quidditch Pitch that morning. She, however, liked to delude herself into thinking it was because, as the only female member of the team, James had direct access to everyone else's dorms, and was thus able to more personally harrass them into not oversleeping, leading to the rest of the team usually arriving on time.

"Well," Sirius drawled when Marlene entered the locker room, slightly slurring his words due to the fact that he was still half asleep. "Now that everyone's here, can we finally get this thing started, Prongs?"

The next half hour could most easily be described as one of pure agony.

Sirius and Marlene were the beaters for Gryffindor, and together made what was arguably the greatest pair in Quidditch history at Hogwarts. Failing that, individually they were each quite talented, which wasn't exactly a good thing, now that they were on less than speaking terms.

"Sirius!" James hollered from across the field, calling Sirius by his actual name in his frustration, rather than the nicknames they had referred to each other by since they were fifteen. "The point of hitting the bludger is to distract the other team, not to practically unseat your fellow beater in an attempt to make yourself look better!"

Mockingly, Marlene stuck her tongue out at Sirius.

"The same goes for you, Marlene," James then shouted in her direction. "Don't think I haven't noticed your sloppy playing as well. The two of you are supposed to be _partners_!"

"You alright, 'Lene?" Marcas questioned, pulling his broom up alongside his sister, who was now shooting death glares at their captain.

"Maybe if she wasn't too distracted by thinking of her boyfriend, then she would play better," Sirius said from his position several feet below the pair of McKinnons.

"Marcas," Marlene began patiently. "Kindly tell my fellow beater that he's just upset because _I_ actually have talent on the Quidditch field, unlike his dear _Jos_."

"'Lene…" Marcas muttered in warning, but it was too late.

"You leave her out of this!" Sirius yelled, quickly rising so that he was at eye level with Marlene, though several feet away from her still. "She's got nothing to do with this!"

"And Regulus _does_?" Marlene challenged him. "Face it: you're just jealous that my boyfriend has more prospects in life than forever being a bimbo like your girlfriend."

"Better than being a junior Death Eater," Sirius snapped back.

By this point, the entire team had drifted towards the arguing pair. James made to break the two of them up, but Max shot the older boy a look. The tension had been building up between Sirius and Marlene for so long that it would practically be suicidal to get in between them now.

"Even if that was true, it's not my fault, _is_ it?" Marlene quickly shot back. "He's not _my_ brother, is he? _I_ was a good enough role model for my brothers that none of them saw it as necessary to follow around any dark wizards with puppy-like devotion. But I guess that can't be said for _everyone_, now, can it?"

All was silent for a brief moment, before Sirius' expression darkened and Marlene realized she had gone too far with that one. No matter how long they had tried, Marlene, James, and Remus hadn't been able to shake Sirius of the guilt that it was his fault that Regulus had turned out the way he did, when in truth it was their mother's. And Marlene had just gone and thrown it all in his face. Merlin, what was _wrong_ with her? She claimed to love Sirius and yet she was being so cruel to him.

"Sirius, I—" Marlene began, but was promptly cut off.

"Save it, McKinnon," Sirius snapped. And without a further word, he sped away; he was off of his broom before his feet ever touched the ground.

_**She's not a saint, and she's not what you think**_

_**She's an actress, whoa**_

_**But she's better known for the things that she does on the mattress**_

_**Whoa**_

_**Soon she's gonna find stealing other peoples' toys on the playground won't make you many friends**_

There was an awkward pause, during which Sirius stormed off the pitch, before James seemed to regain his senses.

"That's practice for the day," He said, not bothering to raise his voice as the whole team was practically in a huddle by this time anyone. Marlene could tell how shaken up he was after the argument, and wondered if anyone else could hear it, too. "Everyone go get something to eat.

Arkie Alderton and Brevis Birch, the keeper and third chaser respectively, were the only two to leave the pitch however. Marlene, in a slight state of shock, remained hovering in midair, with her two brothers on either side of her, looks of concern etched upon their faces, and also looking as if they were both ready to catch her, if the need should arise. James, meanwhile, was staring pensievely in the direction that Sirius had disappeared off to.

It was Marlene who broke the silence, though.

"What have I _done_?" She moaned.

"'Lene," Marcas began tentatively. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Of course she's not, you idiot," Max told him. "And it's all Sirius' fault."

That got James' attention. "What are you talking about? Marlene—"

"Don't you dare defend him, James Potter," Max said threateningly. "You know as well as I do that things have been off with Sirius since August, ever since he began dating Joscelind."

"He has been rather more annoying than usual," James conceded, never the one to want to see faults in his friends, no matter how irksome he often thought them to be. He rounded on Marlene then. "But why would you say something like that to him, Marlene? You know as well as I do how touchy he gets about the whole Regulus thing. Of course, now that we're on the subject of Regulus, what in Merlin's name were you ever thinking when you decided to start dating _him_? He's Sirius' younger brother!"

"I'm not dating him," Marlene muttered. What was the point in keeping up appearances, now? There was no way Sirius was ever going to be in the same room as her again, let alone have a conversation with her so that she could explain exactly how she felt about him.

"_What_?" James, Marcas, and Max all yelped at the same time. Had it not been for the topic, Marlene would have laughed—or in the very least cracked some semblance of a grin—at the expressions on their faces.

"We aren't dating," Marlene stated, louder this time. "We never were. We were…It was just…I wanted to make Sirius jealous, alright?"

While James and Marcas looked beyond confused, it was Max—little Max, forever a baby in his big sister's eyes—who wore an expression of complete understanding. She knew he was remembering a certain encounter the pair of them had had with Joscelind towards the end of the summer (though Max had, admittedly, been lucky to escape it alive, as he had spent most of the conversation slightly unable to intake any oxygen whatsoever, but those details were neglibible at the current moment), and the short conversation they had had afterwards.

"I knew there was a reason you didn't argue with me…" Max muttered, more to himself than as an actual conversation starter.

"What's he talking about?" Marcas questioned.

"Nevermind that," Marlene replied with a wave of her hand. "All that matters is that I've messed up. Sirius is clearly never going to speak to me ever again."

"But…why'd you even want to make him jealous in the first place?" James still looked confused.

Marlene gave him a pained look.

"I'd imagine he's only being this slow because it's Quidditch season," Max stepped in quickly. "He's too focused on winning the House Cup in his last year to figure out that his two best friends could possibly be on the brink of becoming the most hyperactive, over-caffeinated couple in the history of the world—if they were still on speaking terms, that is."

Both Marcas and James just stared at the youngest McKinnon for a moment. Marlene could tell by their ever-changing facial expressions when realization finally dawned on each of them.

"I have been a staunch supporter of Simarl from a young age," Marcas stated with a certain air of approval in his tone.

"I have no idea what 'simarl' means," James began, "But yeah, Padfoot and Mars would basically make the perfect couple, after Lily and myself, of course."

"Yeah," Marcas agreed. "Except you and Evans aren't a couple, remember? And Simarl is obviously Sirius and Marlene's couple name. Duh."

Marlene was momentarily distracted from her brother's insanity (A couple name? Already? _Really_? Had it been _that_ obvious to everyone except her for so very long?), by the look on James' face when Marcas pronounced the two Head students not a couple.

"James," Marlene began slowly. "I've noticed you and Lily spending a lot of time together lately. Is there something you two aren't telling us?"

"Not at all," James said swiftly. "Now, I do believe we were discussing you and Sirius, weren't we?"

"Yes," Max agreed. "I think you should go for it, Marlene."

"Go for what?" Marlene questioned. "There's nothing to go for. Sirius is going to hate me for the rest of my life, now. And can you blame him? Can any of you honestly say that, in his place, you would forgive me for what I said? And, on top of that, believe me when I said that for all of this time, I've been in love with you? And gee, I was only pretending to date your younger brother to make you jealous. Yeah, I can see that one going over really well."

"I don't know, 'Lene," Marcas began tentatively. "You and Sirius have been friends for a long time. He might listen to you. You deserve that much before you officialy declare your friendship over."

But Marlene was shaking her head before he even finished speaking.

"I've really screwed this one up," Marlene stated. "All I wanted was to get some revenge on Sirius for dating that awful cow and completely dropping me in the process, but it's gone too far, now. Clearly I do revenge too well."

With another shake of her head, Marlene finally began her descent. No matter what anyone said, or might think, she knew that her friendship with Sirius was as good as over now. She had never seen him as angry as he had been earlier, after what she had said. And, she supposed, it served her right. She had taken things just a bit too far. There really was nothing left to do about it, though.

It was a short time later, as she made her way back up to the castle and the lure of warm food, that Marlene finally resolved what to do about it all.

Clearly the best thing to do would be to just let Sirius be. She wasn't going to give up her friends over this, but she would give Sirius some space, away from Marlene. And, well, at least he seemed happy with Joscelind. And Marlene supposed that she could live with it, if it was what made Sirius happy, after what she'd done to put him down.

After everything that had happened in the few short months since the school year had started, Marlene looked to the remainder of her time at Hogwarts with a new resolve. She would make the most of what time she had left, even if it was without her oldest and best friend by her side. But if only she didn't do revenge quite so well…

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**She should keep in mind**_

_**There is nothing I do better than revenge**_

**a/n-So, basically, I lied. This isn't the last chapter. And the next one might not be either, so I won't tell you it is. Also, I do believe that at sometime in the future after this story is completed, there will be a story each on the subjects of James and Lily (in the BTR verse) and Sirius and Marlene's couple name.**


	6. Chapter 6

That morning during classes Marlene and Sirius sat at opposite ends of the room from each other. And, though they didn't so much as look at each other, there was an obvious tension in the air between them. Marlene spent the entirety of Charms waiting for Sirius to finally snap. It was with untold relief that she finally escaped the class at the bell and made her way to the library for her morning break, where she was meeting Regulus.

Not wanting to keep any secrets from him after everything he had done for her, Marlene almost immediately came clean to Regulus about her earlier interaction with his brother. Surprisingly, he hadn't been mad at her. Though, reflecting on it later, Marlene probably thought that was due to his extreme relief at her accompanying announcement that their fake relationship had run its course and was thus over, mostly due to the fact that she had already revealed the ruse to James and two of her brothers.

After their break, Marlene convinced Regulus to skip lunch with her, so as to avoid Sirius for just a little bit longer. Although he tried to persuade her that talking to him as soon as possible would probably be for the best, ultimately Regulus accepted defeat and went with Marlene to beg some food off of the house elves instead of enjoying the meal in the comfort of the Great Hall.

It was later in the afternoon, when Marlene was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room with several of her fellow seventh year's, that Sirius finally confronted her about the conversation they had had that morning during practice. Marlene was busy revising a Transfiguration essay that she had finished during her morning break, while Remus and Dorcas sat to her left reviewing old Potions notes for the quiz they would be having the next day. James and Lily, meanwhile, were on the other side of the table, finalizing the patrol schedule for the week (glancing at the pair out of the corner of her eye, Marlene made a mental note to bring up the topic of how incredibly friendly James and Lily seemed to be with each other later, in the Dormitory). Mary had just left to grab a book she needed for a Care of Magical Creatures essay from the library, and Alice and Peter had both disappeared shortly after lunch; Alice with her boyfriend, Frank, and Peter…well, no one was entirely sure where he had gotten off to.

In short, they were all absorbed in their own work when they were interrupted by the portrait of the Fat Lady slamming shut. They all looked up to see Sirius standing just inside the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, scanning the Common Room with an angry scowl that was looking to become a permanent feature etched upon his face. If possible, his expression darkened considerably as his eyes alighted on the table in the back corner where his year-mates were seated.

"He's going to kill me," Marlene stated in a barely discernable whisper, as Sirius made his way over to them, practically running over a pair of first years as he did so.

"I'll come to your funeral," Dorcas told the redhead, patting the other girl's hand in an attempt to comfort her friend.

"You alright, mate?" James asked, though he knew full well that his best friend was anything but alright. In fact, Sirius was quite possibly as far away from 'alright' as it was possible to be, in that moment in time.

"Can I have a word, McKinnon?" Sirius asked, ignoring his friend.

Marlene's eyes narrowed at his second use of her surname that day, though she knew full well she deserved it after what she'd said to him before. "What do you want, _Black_?"

"A _word_," Sirius practically spit out. "Or were you too busy thinking about other…_things_ to pay attention to what I was saying?"

"Like…?" Marlene challenged, stony-faced. In all practicality, Marlene knew she wasn't helping her cause in the slightest. And while she knew that Sirius had every right to be angry with her, she couldn't help but get angry back, after how he had treated her for the past few months. Yes, she understood that she had crossed the line by telling him it was his fault that Regulus was well on his way to becoming a dark wizard, but that didn't change the fact that Sirius was the one who had originally gotten them into this mess. Clearly none of this would be happening right now if he hadn't decided to date that blonde bimbo he called his girlfriend. So yes, while Marlene could admit that this was largely her fault, in a way, she was also adamant in her refusal to completely accept the blame; she had no problem with making things difficult for Sirius.

"Don't play games with me, McKinnon! You know exactly what I'm talking about," Sirius seethed, his voice rising as he uttered each word so that by the time he finished, the Common Room was just about silent and a majority of Gryffindor House was now staring at the corner where the seventh years were situated.

"Padfoot, mate…" James began slowly, standing up and attempting to pull his friend in the direction of their dorm. "Maybe you should go cool off a bit."

"I'm fine," Sirius snapped, yanking his arm out of James' grip. "I just want to have a word with McKinnon. In private. Is that a _problem_?"

"Yeah, I'd say it is," With all of her attention focused on Sirius and then James, Marlene hadn't noticed her brother Merric approach them. "You know, considering how you've been ignoring her for the past two months and all of that."

Sirius merely glared at the fourteen-year-old, who was totally unfazed by it. (As a proud Gryffindor, Merric didn't like to make it common knowledge that the one person who could still terrify him with just a look was his mother.)

Marlene, meanwhile, no matter how much she didn't want to accept the blame she knew was hers, knew that this conversation was going to have to happen sooner rather than later. And a small part of her couldn't help but hope desperately that maybe Sirius would forgive her if she could just explain everything to him. And so, with that in mind, she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up, standing as tall as her short stature would allow.

"We can talk," Marlene informed him curtly, unable to let go of her frustration with him no matter how much she just wanted to put it all behind them.

And without another word, Marlene swiftly made her way across the crowded, yet oddly silent, Common Room. Without even once looking back to see if Sirius was following her, Marlene exited the room and walked a short way down the corridor to an unused classroom that was always unlocked. Once in the room, Marlene perched herself on a desk and waited for Sirius to appear. Merlin, he walked slow…

Just a brief moment later, Sirius entered the room, pointedly pulling the door closed behind him and looking angrier than before, if possible. Marlene chose not to speak, knowing that Sirius was bound to explode any moment now. Sure enough, no sooner had the door clicked shut than Sirius had rounded on Marlene.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Sirius demanded, to which Marlene merely raised an eyebrow. He continued, "You're bloody ridiculous, that's what this is! What the hell has gotten into you since you started dating my brother? And speaking of him, _why_ in Merlin's name are you _dating_ my bloody brother?"

Marlene waited a moment before speaking, keeping her voice level. "Are you quite finished yelling?" Sirius glowered at her and opened his mouth to speak again but she cut him off. "That's what I thought. Now, I'm not going to lie and pretend that what I said this morning wasn't out of line. And I _am_ truly sorry about that. I never should have implied in any way that it's your fault that Regulus seems to be following a less-than desirable path in life. I don't blame you at all for being mad at me about that."

"That's it?" Sirius demanded, incredulous now when Marlene made no move to continue speaking. "That's _all_ you're going to apologize for?"

"I wasn't aware that there was anything else I'd done that you felt I needed to apologize for," Marlene replied promptly.

"How about the things you said about Joscelind?" Sirius questioned. "And what about dating my brother in the first place? I'll ask again: what the hell was that about?"

"I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth," Marlene responded to his first question, before finally hesitating. "As for dating Regulus…well…that didn't quite go as planned."

"As _planned_?" Sirius repeated. "There was some twisted logic behind you dating my younger brother?"

"It wasn't twisted," Marlene insisted, starting to sound just the slightest bit insecure as she began to think that wallowing in self-pity for the rest of life would have been a better option than revenge. "It made perfect sense."

"Would you care to enlighten me?" Sirius requested sardonically, "Because I, for one, fail to see how dating my brother would make any sense whatsoever. Last I checked, you hated Regulus! And mostly because of how he treated your brother. I know how protective you are of your brothers; don't tell me you forgave him for that."

"I don't need to justify myself to you," Marlene replied. "I can be angry at or forgive anyone I like. Right now, for instance, I'd love nothing more than to forgive _you_, but I'm finding that a little difficult, what with how completely and extremely mad you make me."

"_I'm_ making _you_ angry?" Sirius questioned, stopping just short of laughing at the very notion. "Are you going to give me a straight answer if I ask what the hell I've done to make you angry? Because last time I checked, I'm not the one being a complete arse about things."

Marlene really did give a short spurt of mirthless laughter at that. "Have you been paying attention to the way you've been acting at _all_ in the past few months? Or have you been too busy focusing on Joscelind to notice the way you're treating everyone else?"

Marlene could tell by the way Sirius' expression changed as she spoke that everything seemed to be falling into place for him.

"Oh, I get it now," Sirius said, "You're just jealous of how much time I've been spending with Joscelind, so you decided to date my brother to get my attention and prove some point that you have yet to make clear to me."

"You're a bloody idiot!" Marlene just about shouted at him, finally losing her cool. "It's because I _love_ you!"

_**Do you still feel like you know what you're doing**_

_**Cause I don't think you do**_


	7. Chapter 7

Sirius just stood there for a very prolonged moment, simply staring at Marlene with a blank look on his face.

"Er…what?" Sirius finally asked.

"I said," Marlene stated pointedly, resisting the urge to glare at him in frustration (because, _really_, what would _that_ solve?), "That I love you."

"What?" Sirius repeated, the single word appeared to be the only word he could manage to form at the moment.

Marlene barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes at him in time.

"Is there something wrong with your hearing?" Marlene questioned. "How many times am I going to have to say that I love you before it sinks in and you understand what I'm saying?"

"You don't love me," Sirius finally managed to get out. "You can't."

Marlene merely rose an eyebrow at this. "And would you care to enlighten me as to why not?"

"Because…you're Marlene," Sirius stated. "You're my best friend..."

Marlene let out a very un-ladylike snort of laughter at this. "That's all you've got?"

"You can't love me," Sirius repeated. "You're joking."

Marlene narrowed her eyes at this. "Why is it so hard for you to accept that I love you? Because I really do, Sirius; it's not something I would joke about. I'll be the first to admit that maybe I didn't exactly act like that recently, but it's true. I love you Sirius, and I can't stand seeing you with Joscelind. She's only using you."

At that, Sirius finally seemed to regain his focus. "How would you know? It's not like you've even tried getting to know her. Besides, Joscelind and I are very happy together."

"You haven't even known her for three months!" Marlene practically exploded. "And how on Earth was I supposed to get to know her when all she did when you weren't around was act like a stuck up bitch?"

"Excuse me?" Sirius repeated slowly.

"You heard me," Marlene snapped. "You only think you know Joscelind, but it's all an act; she's a completely different person when you aren't around. And speaking of that, what _does_ she tell you about her team? Because I've heard some interesting stories from Milo about how _friendly_ your 'girlfriend' is with certain male members of the team."

"Stop it, Marlene," Sirius commanded, sounding slightly strained, causing Marlene to see that, although he was still refusing to accept what she was saying, her words _were_ having an effect on him. "Stop making all of this up. Joscelind isn't like that."

"Not when you're around," Marlene countered. "And I'm not going to stop, Sirius. You need to see the truth. Joscelind is just using you, and everyone but you can see it. Why do you think no one ever wants to spend time with you anymore? It's because you're being such a dense idiot, and nothing anyone does can get you to shut up about her. But I care about you, Sirius. And I don't want you to get hurt, though I suppose it's a bit late for that, even if you can't see it yet."

But Sirius was shaking his head as Marlene spoke, not accepting a single thing she said.

"Why can't you just be happy for me, Marlene?" Sirius asked.

"Happy?" Marlene repeated incredulously. "Have you been paying attention to anything I've said? You're bloody mental, Sirius!"

"I've been listening," Sirius replied. "I just don't believe you. Jos wouldn't do that to me."

"Why can't you see what's right in front of your face, Sirius?" Marlene exploded, which, she was pleased to note, caused him to jump slightly in surprise.

"Because you're being ridiculous!" Sirius recovered enough to yell back at her. He suddenly pushed himself away from the desk he had been leaning against up to this point. "You know what? This isn't helping at all; it's a waste of time. I'm leaving."

And without another word he strode from the room.

"Walking away won't change anything!" Marlene couldn't help but holler after him. "She's still using you!"

Once his footsteps had faded away, Marlene chose to let out her frustration by kicking the closest thing to herself that she could find. Unfortunately for her sake, however, that thing turned out to be the stone wall. After letting out a few choice expletives (which all happened to be in Gaelic anyway, so it wasn't as if any professor who might be within earshot could prove what she had said), Marlene too exited the room, limping as she went.

Figuring that Sirius would have gone back to the common room, Marlene contemplated going to hide out in the library until dinnertime. However, all of the time she had spent with Regulus lately had obviously rubbed off on her, because she felt incredibly guilty at the thought of any amount of time in the library without any of her homework to do. So, steeling her resolve, Marlene slowly made her way back to the Common Room, dreading what (or rather who) she would find there, after her conversation with Sirius had spiraled so out of control.

She needn't have worried, though. As it turned out, Sirius hadn't returned to the Common Room after leaving Marlene behind in the empty classroom. Of course, on the downside, this also meant that she would have to be the one to explain to all of their friends what had just gone down.

"Marlene!" Dorcas, whose gaze had been focused solely on the back of the Fat Lady's portrait ever since it had closed behind Sirius, cried upon spotting Marlene, causing James, Remus, Lily, and Mary to turn around as well. "Is everything alright?"

"Where's Sirius?" James wanted to know.

"Everything is just peachy," Marlene replied sarcastically. "And I'm not Sirius' keeper; I have no idea where he went."

She made to walk back over to the corner where her friends were seated, but a spike of pain that had steadily been building up as she made her way back to the Common Room shot up her leg after one step. As she faltered and a look of intense pain flashed across her face, James immediately went into overprotective Quidditch captain mode, while Dorcas switched to healer mode. Both hurried over to her and, as they guided her to the nearest armchair, Marlene finally noticed how much the Common Room had emptied out since she had last been in it. It must be closer to dinnertime than she had thought…

"What's wrong?" Dorcas asked, pulling her wand out from under her robes. "What hurts?"

"It's my foot," Marlene pointed at the right one. "I think I may have broken a toe…or several."

"What did you do_,_ Marlene?" James demanded. "We have a very important Quidditch match next week! We can't afford to have you out with an injury."

"Last time I checked, feet weren't really important when it came to flying and hitting bludgers," Marlene said with a slight wince as Dorcas attempted to remove her shoe. "Besides, we're playing _Hufflepuff_. It isn't _that_ important. You know as well as I do they haven't had a good stock of players to choose from in _years_."

At this, James' eyes widened in alarm. "Not important?" He repeated. "What's _wrong_ with you? _All_ Quidditch matches are important!"

"What did you _do_?" Dorcas demanded once Marlene's foot had been liberated, only to reveal that three of her toes had swollen up and were now a lovely blackish shade of purple.

"I kicked a wall," Marlene answered with a shrug.

"A wall," Dorcas repeated in disbelief. "What did the wall ever do to you?"

"Absolutely nothing," Marlene replied. "In fact, all it did was stay exactly where it's always been. _It_ didn't walk away from me," A hint of anger had crept into her voice at the end and she took a small, calming breath before continuing. "Which is probably why my foot ended up like this…"

Dorcas merely gave her friend a piercing look and Marlene, for her part, just stared back unblinkingly. Dorcas seemed to find whatever it was she was looking for in Marlene's expression, however, because she nodded to herself with a knowing look on her face, before turning her attention back to Marlene's blackened and swollen foot.

"Well, once you're done with that," James said pleasantly, his agony over Marlene's lack of enthusiasm for the coming match apparently forgotten, "I suggest we head down to dinner. Perhaps Sirius is already in the Great Hall…"

At the mention of Sirius' name, Marlene quickly lost interest in the conversation taking place around her and instead focused on her foot. As Dorcas tapped it softly with her wand and the swelling began to go down, Marlene couldn't help but think that this wasn't how she had envisioned things turning out when she had first come up with her grand plan of revenge.

Marlene had finally admitted the truth; she had told Sirius that she loved him.

He hadn't believed her.

Had she been wrong to think that he would feel the same way? Had she doomed their friendship even more with her announcement?

Marlene wasn't normally the type of girl who let her feelings for a boy control her life, but Sirius had always been different. Outside of her family, he was the most important person in Marlene's life. He was and always would be her oldest and best friend, no fight could ever change that. She loved him, but now he apparently wanted nothing to do with her.

Marlene felt as if her life was spiraling out of control and, unlike her toe, there would be no quick fix.

**_Oh, do you still feel like you know what you're doing_**

**_I don't think you do, I don't think you do_**


	8. Chapter 8

Sirius was not at dinner.

As rare as it was for Sirius to skip a meal, the seventeen-year-old boy was a no-show. In fact, he remained conspicuously absent for the remainder of the evening, not even so much as showing his face in the Common Room.

A small part of Marlene couldn't help but feel the slightest bit relieved about all of this. Lately, whenever she and Sirius had interacted with each other, there had always been some type of confrontation and things hadn't turned out well.

But on the other hand, she was slightly concerned about his continuing absence. He wasn't…avoiding her…was he? Because as difficult as things had been between them lately, he was still the most important thing in her life, and she had no idea what she would do without him. He must be avoiding her, there was no other rational explanation that she could think of.

Marlene knew she had to fix that; Sirius was too important to her for things to turn out any other way. And so she resolved to speak with him the next morning, when he was sure to show up for breakfast in the Great Hall (He _was_ a teenage boy after all, he need to eat _sometime_).

Sirius was not at breakfast.

Marlene knew there was no way she could have missed him. She had woken up incredibly early (exponentially early by her personal standards, in fact—the birds hadn't even been making their usual racket when she woke up) so she knew that he hadn't eaten quickly and then ducked out in order to continue avoiding her. There had to be an explanation for this, a reason why Sirius was nowhere to be found. And it turned out that the Marauders had the answer.

"Sirius is gone," James stated succinctly, once he, Remus, and Peter had joined Marlene at the Gryffindor table. The three of them had also made it to breakfast at an earlier than normal hour, which was why the rest of their year-mates still had yet to make an appearance. Judging from their haggard appearances, Marlene doubted the three of them had even gone to sleep the night before. Indeed, no sooner had he taken a seat, then Peter had folded his arms on the table and laid his head on them, fast asleep already.

"Gone?" Marlene repeated incredulously. "How can he be gone?"

"He never came back to the dormitory last night," Remus replied. "And we've looked everywhere we can think of for him."

"But are you sure?" Marlene pressed. "You're absolutely positive that he's gone? Are you sure you looked everywhere?"

James nodded, and for the first time Marlene noticed how uncharacteristically somber he was at that moment. "We checked the Marauder's Map, too. He didn't show up anywhere on it."

James and Remus exchanged an uneasy glance before continuing.

"Marlene," Remus began uneasily, "What happened between you and Sirius? I know things haven't been the greatest all around since Joscelind came into the picture…but things have really gotten bad between you and Sirius, and the two of you used to be inseparable."

"I told Sirius the truth," Marlene said simply.

"About…?" Remus prompted.

"How I feel about him," Marlene replied cryptically.

Remus continued to look at her blankly, and Marlene refocused her attention on James.

"You didn't tell him?" She questioned.

James shrugged. "Max, Marcas, and I agreed it wasn't really our place to tell anyone."

"Tell anyone what?" Remus asked, completely lost by this point in the conversation. "What don't I know?"

"Oh trust me," James muttered, "You know."

Remus looked helplessly at Marlene.

"I've recently come to the realization that I care about Sirius as more than a friend," Marlene informed him.

"Oh, yeah, I already knew that," Remus said with a shrug. "It's been obvious for as long as I've known both of you, since we were eleven."

"Unfortunately, this realization came about due to Joscelind's sudden entrance into our lives," Marlene continued, ignoring Remus' contribution to what appeared to be the popular opinion of every single person she knew. "So I decided that I needed to get revenge, which is where Regulus came into play. We weren't really dating; it was all a ruse to get Sirius' attention. However, it didn't exactly turn out the way I planned, because Sirius was more than a little upset about my 'dating' his younger brother. And yesterday morning at practice we finally came to blows, as you know, and, well…I said some things that I regret."

Remus nodded, he had been filled in on what had occurred at the Gryffindor Quidditch practice the previous day. But as for everything else she had said…well, the events of the past few weeks were all starting to suddenly make sense.

"And then there's the conversation Sirius and I had yesterday afternoon," Marlene said wearily. "Basically, he wanted me to apologize for what I implied about him and Regulus. And I did," She hastened to add. "But then things got a bit out of control again, because I had also said a few questionable things about Joscelind, that he fully expected me to take back, which I refused to do. I wasn't about to take back the truth. And, well…then I tried to get Sirius to see that Joscelind is no good for him, which _he_ refused to do. Oh, and I may or may not have told him that I love him."

The last sentence she said rather quickly, as if hoping that James and Remus wouldn't catch it, which they did.

"What did he say?" Remus asked, looking very much as if he didn't want to know the answer.

"He didn't believe me," Marlene replied, at the same time frowning and mentally willing her eyes not to start filling with tears. "He didn't believe anything I said, not about how I feel or about how Joscelind is clearly using him _and_ cheating on him."

That last bit caught their attention.

"What?" James demanded.

"Joscelind is cheating on him," Marlene answered simply. "I had a letter from Milo earlier this week, and he mentioned that he hadn't known that Sirius and Joscelind had broken up. After responding that they hadn't, he told me about how…_friendly_ dear Jos and one of the beaters had gotten with each other."

"You know, if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation," James began thoughtfully, "I might comment on how it seems to be hit or miss when it comes to Joscelind Wadcock's feelings for beaters. I mean, she clearly hates you , Mars, while we all thought she liked Sirius, and now she's with this new guy who's also a beater."

"And yet you said it anyway," Remus said with more than a hint of sarcasm to his tone. "How incredibly thoughtful of you. But moving on, Sirius is still missing. What are we going to do about it?"

"We can't tell the professors," Marlene answered immediately. "McGonagall alone would give him detention for the rest of the year for leaving school grounds without permission."

"And then he would win our competition for who can get the most detentions…" James stated thoughtfully.

Marlene and Remus merely gave him a look.

"Right," James said quickly. "A time and a place, I know—I'm just a bit sleep-deprived, that's all. We shouldn't tell anyone that he's gone," He paused, before continuing slowly, unsure if anyone would agree to his plan, "We could cover for him, until he gets back from…well, from wherever the hell he decided to disappear to."

Marlene nodded, "We'll tell our professors that he's sick or something, and if they say they're going to check to see if he's in the Hospital Wing we'll say he's refusing to get out of bed and go or something."

"So, in short, he's just going to owe us all big time," Remus summed up with a slight nod. "I can deal with that."

_**Let's hear the applause**_

_**Come on show me how much better you are**_

After giving a near-constant stream of excuses the entire morning, Marlene was less than surprised to find that Sirius did not make an appearance in the Great Hall for lunch. By this point she was starting to worry. She had seen that what she had said had had an effect on Sirius, but Marlene hadn't thought she'd had enough of an effect to warrant this severe of a reaction. Where could Sirius possibly be that he was trying so hard to avoid her?

After lunch, Marlene chose to spend her afternoon break out by the lake, rather than in the library or the common room. James and Remus had obviously told the rest of their friends what had gone down between Sirius and Marlene, and she found that after four straight hours of it, she could no longer take the constant stream of pitying looks being directed at her. So it was off to the blissfully deserted grounds that she dragged all of her schoolwork.

Marlene found that she quite liked the solitude of the grounds. It was rather refreshing after all of the anxiety she'd been putting herself through recently. Perhaps she would just stay on the shore of the lake forever, refusing to budge for anything. As long as the weather stayed nice and her summoning charms were strong, she couldn't really foresee any problems arising.

_But you would miss Sirius too much,_ Marlene told herself silently, before giving a rather unladylike snort. _Yeah, because he's been around so much lately, and the two of us have been getting along wonderfully._

She shook her head to clear her thoughts; negativity would get her nowhere in all of this, even if it seemed liked the only option at the moment.

_I'll always love him, though. We've been through too much together for me to ever stop caring about Sirius._

"I'll always love you," Marlene said, speaking aloud now, as if doing so would be an even greater affirmation of the truth.

"What?" A voice asked from behind her.

Marlene jumped at the unexpected sound of the voice, though she contained her shriek of surprise. She recognized that voice…

Moving slowly, unsure of whether or not she had actually heard someone speaking behind her, Marlene turned around. Standing slightly behind her, looking very forlorn with his hands thrust into his pockets and a downcast expression upon his face, was Sirius.

"Er…nothing," Marlene hastened to respond. Then, "Sirius, where have you been?"

"Around," Sirius replied vaguely, hesitating for a brief moment before taking a few steps forward and sitting beside Marlene, though he remained a good foot to her right. "I had…stuff to do."

Marlene nodded understandingly though, in truth, she still didn't have the faintest idea of where he could have possibly gone.

"Marlene," Sirius began tentatively, "Were you telling the truth earlier?"

"About what?" Marlene asked.

"About how you feel about me," Sirius said slowly, as if he was dreading hearing the answer.

"Of course I was," Marlene answered immediately.

"Even after the way I treated you?" Sirius asked, but continued on before waiting for a reply. "Because the way I treated you—all of you, was completely uncalled for. My friends are the most important people in my life; you're the only family I have left. And I let Joscelind get in the way of all of that. I should never have let having a girlfriend come in between me and my friends."

"And I _am_ sorry about using Regulus to get back at you," Marlene put in swiftly when he didn't continue. "You should know that I had to really talk him into going along with my plan. Regulus never wanted to do anything to hurt you, Sirius; he misses you."

Sirius was shaking his head before she had finished speaking, however.

"It isn't going to work out between us," Sirius stated. "Between me and Reg. Even though he knows it and I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it, dear old mum has him wrapped around her finger. And until he recognizes that he needs to get away from her and all of her rubbish influences, there's nothing I can do for him. But hey," He gave Marlene a weak smile here, "I've got you and the Marauders, who needs a little brother? I can always commandeer one of yours."

"Do you though?" Marlene questioned. "Do you really have us still? What about Joscelind?"

Sirius didn't answer immediately, and instead stared out across the lake, a pensive expression upon his face.

"We're through," Sirius finally stated. "That's where I've been. I went to go see her last night and…you were right, Marlene. She's been cheating on me practically the whole time we've been together. Joscelind and I are done."

_**See you deserve some applause**_

_**Cause you're so much better**_


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm so sorry, Sirius," Marlene said immediately. She hesitated momentarily before continuing, "Was…was it completely awful?"

Sirius shrugged. "I've had my fair share of bad break ups. But this time I may have been a tad more upset than usual," He frowned slightly here. "Tell Milo I'm sorry if having to play his reserves costs him his chance at the World Cup."

"Do I want to know?" Marlene asked slowly, trying very hard not to even imagine what could have possibly happened that would result in Milo having to play his reserves, but also secretly quite pleased that one of those reserves was likely being put in for Joscelind.

"Probably not," Sirius admitted. "If it wasn't for how much I messed things up with all of my friends I'd say we should just forget this whole thing ever happened."

Marlene's heart couldn't help but fall at those words. He wanted to forget all of it? Even the part where she'd finally confessed that she loved him? She was heartbroken at this, to say the least. But she supposed that having her best friend back was better than nothing.

"I'm sure everyone will understand," Marlene comforted him. "As long as you apologize and all that jazz. I mean, come on, you were only a semi-jerk to us for like two, three months. We've had to put up with Prongs' obsession with Lily for _years_."

"You make it sound really bad when you put it like that," Sirius said with a slight wince. "But I guess I _was_ kind of a jerk."

"I'm nothing if not brutally honest," Marlene told him cheerfully. "That's what best friends are for, after all."

"You _are_ honest," Sirius admitted. "But do you really mean it, Mars? You wouldn't ever lie to me about anything?"

"Of course not," Marlene replied immediately, rather affronted.

"Never?" Sirius pressed.

"Never," Marlene confirmed.

"Not even if you were beyond frustrated with me and my overwhelming jerkiness and you'd tried everything else to get me to see sense?" Sirius questioned.

"Someone has to keep you grounded," Marlene replied sensibly, not entirely sure where he was going with this line of questioning. They had already established that she had been telling the truth about how she felt about him. He couldn't still be talking about that, could he? "Even if I'd rather just punch you in the face—which, I might add, I _will_ be doing next time, just a forewarning for you."

"I'd really rather there wasn't a next time," Sirius admitted.

"Yes, that would be nice," Marlene agreed.

"But for real, Marlene," Sirius said, and Marlene couldn't help but notice that for once he was using her real name and not an abbreviated version of it. "You would never lie to me?"

"No, Sirius," Marlene stated, getting just the slightest bit impatient at this point. Seriously—where _was_ he going with this? "You're my oldest friend; I could never do that to you."

"So if, say, hypothetically," Sirius began slowly, "We were having a…erm…_conversation_ in which we were discussing a hypothetical girlfriend of mine who may or may not have been the nicest person around and who may or may not have influenced me to be rather annoying to my friends and kind of a jerk, and you wanted me to see reason, would you lie and say whatever you could to get me to see reason?"

"No…" Marlene said slowly. And then, finally voicing her frustration, "Sirius, what are you trying to get at here?"

"Yesterday," Sirius began hesitantly, "When you and I were…_ahem_, talking, were you telling the truth when…when you said you loved me?"

"I…yes," Marlene replied, a bit uncomfortably.

While she had been entirely truthful when she'd told Sirius that she loved him, it was one thing to admit it when they were shouting across the room at each other, but now that she'd had some time to think about it and in light of recent events, perhaps it would have been for the best if that little detail had remained a secret for quite a bit longer. Because, honestly, if he was having such a hard time simply bringing the topic up, he couldn't possibly feel the same way about her, of that Marlene was certain.

"But I already told you that I was telling the truth," Marlene pointed out, hardly having to expend any effort to recall the beginning of the conversation they were currently having.

"We got distracted from that particular topic," Sirius replied. "We started talking about Reg…and you're positively certain that you weren't just making it all up? Not about Reg, about…loving me."

"I've said it enough times already; I don't know why you keep questioning it," Marlene told him. "But yes, Sirius. I was telling the truth." And, steeling her resolve, she continued, "After everything that has happened with Joscelind lately, I can finally see what everyone else has been claiming to see for years: I love you, Sirius. I'll always love you."

Sirius didn't immediately reply, causing Marlene to have a brief moment of panic. Did he not feel the same way? Had she just completely ruined their twelve-year friendship? However, he finally spoke up before she lost it completely.

"Do you remember first year?" Sirius asked her, and Marlene couldn't help but notice that apparently he was changing the subject again. What in Merlin's name was _this_ going to accomplish?

"Things were great back then," Marlene stated, deciding to go along with him for the time being. "We had some awesome pranks."

"We made some great new friends," Sirius chimed in.

"Things were simpler then," Marlene said decisively. "Not like now. Growing up is too hard."

"I wouldn't really agree," Sirius said. "After all, we were growing up back then, too. We were really immature then, weren't we?"

Marlene let out a small giggle. "If Moony was here right now, he'd say that we're still immature."

"And he'd probably be right," Sirius admitted. "Just don't ever tell him that I told you so." He shook his head then. "But back then we were insanely immature." He hesitated for the briefest moment before continuing, "Do you remember how we used to react when Prongs would refer to us as a couple? Like, he'd call you my girlfriend and…stuff."

"And then we'd both get so distracted from whatever it was we were doing in order to deny it," Marlene continued for him, a small smile on her face. "We got them all back for it in the end, though." She couldn't help it as her grin widened. "We really did have some pretty epic pranks, back in the day."

"Things have been different this year," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "I really screwed things up."

Marlene chose not to respond, and merely sat there. Speaking up would be pointless; Sirius already knew her position on the matter: she one hundred percent agreed with his assessment.

"I was an idiot," Sirius continued. "But I learned from my mistakes."

"How?" Marlene couldn't help but ask.

"Honestly, I never really liked spending time with Joscelind," Sirius admitted.

"You seemed pretty infatuated with her to me," Marlene told him doubtfully.

"Well, at first I was," Sirius replied, "For those first few weeks. But then we got back to school and everyone did their best to avoid me, because I was so annoying."

"So you noticed that?" Marlene asked with a slight grimace when he paused to take a breath.

"It was kind of obvious," Sirius stated. "Not that I blame any of you; I was pretty annoying, talking about Joscelind all of the time."

"Incredibly annoying, in fact," Marlene chimed in.

"But with everyone avoiding me and then that whole thing with you and Regulus," Sirius continued, "I couldn't help but realize how much I missed you and all of the time we used to spend together."

"We missed you, too," Marlene told him.

"No, I meant I missed _you_, Marlene," Sirius said, finally turning away from staring pensively at the lake in order to face her. "I mean, yeah, I missed spending time with the guys, but I really missed spending time with you. That's what made me start hating spending time with Joscelind. She just wasn't _you_."

Marlene really didn't know how to respond to this, and instead continued to stare out across the lake, as it was conveniently directly in her line of sight. It didn't matter, however, because Sirius continued on speaking without pause.

"And then things got worse when I started subconsciously comparing the two of you," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "Just for the record, you're a thousand times better than her. Not that I would have admitted it then. By that time you were dating Regulus, and I was incredibly angry with you. I tried to convince myself that I was better off without you, but then we had that…er, _conversation_ at practice."

"That's one way of putting it," Marlene muttered. "I was completely awful to you."

"We were both awful," Sirius stated. "But it's alright, because then we had another, equally wonderful conversation. And if we hadn't had that conversation, then I never would have decided to drop in on Joscelind and thus discover her in a rather compromising position with the Irish team's Seeker."

Marlene couldn't help but grimace at this.

"I think it all turned out for the best, though," Sirius said, noticing her expression.

"Well, if you really think there's an upside to finding out like that, that I was right about your girlfriend," Marlene told him, "Then I'd love to hear it."

"I'm never going to have to see her ever again," Sirius pointed out, "Which is always a plus."

"This is true," Marlene conceded.

"And…" Sirius hesitated momentarily before continuing, "Now that she's out of the picture, I can finally stop lying to myself." At this point, Sirius reached across the open space between himself and Marlene and grabbed her hand before going on. "Marlene, I love you, too. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've loved you since the very first day I met you, when we were five years old, even if it has taken me this long to recognize what those feelings really mean."

Marlene didn't know what to say to this, and chose to merely stare at him in a slight state of shock.

"You're…serious?" She finally managed to get out.

Sirius rose an eyebrow at her word choice, but simply replied, "Always."

At this, Marlene slipped her hand out of Sirius' relaxed grip and basically threw herself at him. As Marlene's arms went around his neck, Sirius instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her just as tightly.

"Promise me something, Sirius?" Marlene said into his shoulder.

"Anything," Sirius replied.

"Let's never be this stupid ever again," Marlene said firmly. "Deal?"

"Deal," Sirius confirmed as Marlene pulled back from him slightly, grinning broadly. "And…will you be my girlfriend?"

"I'd love to," Marlene stated. Then she sighed. "I suppose it's about time to go inside again, don't you think? You've already missed all of our morning classes today…"

"We _could_ go to class…" Sirius began slowly. "But I'm pretty sure I can think of something much better for us to occupy our time with."

The smile spread across Marlene's face once more. "I reckon I can, too. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Obviously," Sirius said. "We need to share the good news with everyone else." A completely serious expression appeared on his face suddenly and he continued earnestly, "After all, they need to know that they really were right all of those times they tried to convince us that we were perfect for each other."

"A prank it is, then," Marlene said agreeably. "They're really going to hate being proven right…"

Ten minutes later, Sirius and Marlene had their plan set and Sirius got to his feet, ready to go put everything in motion. Making a split decision, he offered a hand to Marlene and, upon helping her up, he pulled her close once more and pressed his lips firmly to hers.

"Have I told you today that I love you?" He asked, once they had broken apart.

"Once or twice, maybe," Marlene said with a smile. "And, just for the record, I love you, too. Now, what do you say we go wreak some havoc on our friends?"

"An excellent suggestion," Sirius replied. And, hand in hand, the pair made their way back up to the castle together.

**_She took him faster than you could say sabotage_**

**END.**

**a/n-For more on the McKinnons and also the general madness of Marlene and the Marauders, check out the stories co-authored by myself and An-Jelly-Ca, which are posted under the penname SiRiUsLyPiNkAnDgReEn. Also, I believe I may write a short companion piece to this story about James and Lily, so be on the lookout for that sometime in the foreseeable future. Thanks for reading!**


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